Comet Hyakutake

Comet Hyakutakewas Japanese amateur astronomer Yuji Hyakutake's second comet discovery, and the third comet discovered in 1996.

The comet came within 8 million miles of Earth on March 25. It was very well placed for viewing because it was be near the "North Star" (Polaris). It appeared, to the naked eye, like a fuzzy ball with a trailing edge!

The photographs you can view (below) were taken on March
22nd 1996 south of Red Bluff, CA by Club member and amateur astrophotographer Bob Thompson using a 150 mm telephoto lens.

The original film used was Konica 3200, which was copied to Varicolor slide film and then to Ektachrome. Colors were not enhanced during development. The original print shows a tail of about 23 degrees of arc.. but the digitized image presented here shows about 7/8 of the tail captured in the original 11" by 14" photo, which was digitized using an HP Scanjet IIC/ADF.

Note the colors: green around the front of the head, pink along the body of the tail, and blue near the tail's end. This Comet was especially colorful because of its
relatively high ice/gas content.